Nickelodeon Launches Global Animated Shorts Program

Nickelodeon launches its first-ever global animated shorts program to identify and develop new animation creative talent from around the world, receiving over 100 submissions from artists, designers, writers, directors and comedians representing more than 20 countries across six continents at this year’s Annecy International Film Festival.

London/Annecy, France – Nickelodeon announced that it has launched its first ever global animated shorts program to identify and develop new animation creative talent from around the world, and it has received over 100 submissions from artists, designers, writers, directors and comedians representing more than 20 countries across six continents (Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia). Combined with the more than 900 submissions from the U.S. shorts program, Nickelodeon has received over 1,000 pitches for its 2013 global shorts program. Finalists from the international program will be announced later this summer.

The final submissions for 2013 were received at this year’s Annecy International Film Festival. Fifteen ideas will be chosen from amongst the pitches submitted and will be developed into animated shorts with the potential to air on Nickelodeon channel’s and websites around the globe, as well as the Nick App. In May, Nick U.S. announced its 12 finalists from its 2013 shorts submissions out of over 900 submissions. Once decided, the International finalists will be added to the U.S. submissions for production.

“We know that great creative talent and ideas come from everywhere around the world, and we are committed to finding and cultivating the next generation of creative voices and giving them an opportunity,” said Russell Hicks, President, Content and Development, Nickelodeon. “Opening submissions on a global level brings us more fresh ideas, new characters, concepts and amazingly funny stories to our audiences everywhere.”

“We’ve had a striking response from the global creative community with our inaugural shorts program,” said Nina Hahn, Senior Vice President, International Production & Development for Nickelodeon. “We are very excited by the wide variety and diversity of the projects and look forward to selecting the shorts to ultimately develop into original content for our global platforms and to expand the program for next year.”

Concepts were received in all animation styles, from 2D, digital 2D, stop motion, CG and mixed media, from a broad pool of creative talent. Creators of the final shorts selected will be provided with the necessary artistic and production support teams to help them complete their fully animated original, humor-based and character-driven shorts.

Last year, more than 600 pitches were collected during Nickelodeon’s inaugural Animated Shorts Program in the U.S. From the pitches, 12 shorts were created, six are currently in series development and two will get pilot orders. All 12 will air on the network, or appear on Nickelodeon websites globally. Nickelodeon announced earlier this year that it will pick up Breadwinners, created by Gary “Doodles” DiRaffaele (MAD, Metalocyalpse), who was discovered from Nick’s 2012 Animated Shorts Program, and Steve Borst (Teen Titans Go!, MAD). Breadwinners follows two booty-shaking ducks as they operate a bread delivery service out of their awesome, jet-fueled rocket van. The series was picked up for 20 full-length episodes.